How to Minimize Wheel Hop
 

Hey guise. This is my first experience with a RWD car, and the only car I had before this (old Outback) was AWD and didn't have enough power for me to have to deal with this issue previously.

I know what is physically happening (everything bouncing around), and I'm going to assume that wheel hop is the result of a suspension that is too soft (be it springs/dampers, or bushings) to adequately control it. I've noticed that most of the time I get wheel hop is in wet conditions, presumably because dry conditions generally require so much throttle that I've PROPERLY lit up the rears. I've also noticed that it occurs when I give enough throttle to cause wheel-spin, but not so much as to completely light up the rear tires. My solution thus far has either been to lift off enough to allow the rears to hook up, or if I'm being all slidey-slidey on purpose, I give it way more than enough throttle to properly spin up the rears, which usually avoids the issue. It also seems that side loads (sliding around a turn or whatnot) help minimize wheel-hop.

Is there anything I can do, from a parts perspective, to minimize this? It can become INCREDIBLY violent, to the point where if I'm holding the shifter, it feels like the transmission is just going to shake itself loose from the car.

I'm assuming you are on stock tires, because new car? Easy to do on them. I could induce hop on cool mornings on a turn, or like you said, in wet, fairly easy.

To clarify, I'm not trying to eliminate wheel hop by preventing wheelspin. I can do that easily with my foot (and eventually with better tires). I just want to be able to have a bit of fun without destroying the drivetrain. Do I just have to get out of the habit of giving "just enough throttle" to unstick the rears and start training myself to simply dog it if I intend to slide around a bit? Sometimes I want to accelerate as quickly as possible on wet roads, which would normally mean accelerating at the limit with a little bit of wheelspin, but in this car I either have to stay away from the tires' limits, or I have to intentionally light them up, and neither of those options is the "fastest" way to accelerate.

There are arguments about where that first mode oscillates. My money's on the front of the diff then the engine mounts second.

Others will say it's in the trailing arm bushings, I think.

I've been threatening to stick my faux-pro up in there and film it.

There's this big thread too, not sure if you've read through it:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29020

If I put it in gear and then while laying on the ground rock the car back and forth, I can see exactly where the front diff mount is the loosest place in the driveline.

Poly rear upper control arm bushings help a lot.